25 Bloody Things You Will Want To Know About the UFC

Just a few hours ago, the UFC announced that it has been sold for an astounding $4.2 billion, and what some fans might see as the end of a glorious era, others might view as the rise of a new, brighter period for the world’s biggest mixed martial arts promotion company that features most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport. In 2001, the ailing franchise’s value didn’t exceed $2 million, but on Monday, July 11, 2016, Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White sold the leading professional fight brand for a record-breaking reported $4.2 billion. Thanks to the rapid and “violent” progress of the sport of MMA, the UFC became one of the largest and fastest growing sports brands in the world.

Dana White, the dominant and most recognized non-fighting figure of the sport and the man who had a twenty percent share in the UFC under its parent company, Zuffa, will stay on as the CEO, but his word will no longer be the final one, and that will probably be the most crucial thing (for the fans and the sport itself) going forward. So what make UFC as valuable and profitable as Star Wars? The answer might be hidden in the following 25 Bloody Things You Will Want To Know About the UFC, the world’s fastest growing and most profitable fight brand in the world.

25

The first UFC fight was supposed to involve alligators. Putting electric fences around the ring was also considered. Thank God, neither of those things happened.

Source: mmajunkie.com, Image: Wikipedia

24

The first official Ultimate Fighting Championship event was finally held on November 12, 1993, at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The show proposed to find answers to sports fans’ questions such as, “Can a wrestler beat a boxer?” As with most martial arts at the time, fighters typically had skills in just one discipline and had little experience against opponents with different skills.

Source: mmajunkie.com, Image: YouTube

23

This trend continued for a few years, and the main purpose of the early UFC competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a fight, with minimal rules, between competitors of different fighting disciplines including boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, wrestling, Muay Thai, karate, judo, and other styles.

Source: mmajunkie.com, Image: YouTube

22

Dana White serves as the president of the UFC, while Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

Source: mmajunkie.com, Image: Wikipedia

21

There have been 3,749 UFC fights and more than 1,500 fighters in the promotion’s history since November 1993 when it was founded. UFC 200 last Saturday was the 363rd event in UFC history.